Review: MainStage Irving’s ‘Intimate Apparel’ gently deals with race and gender

You can tell that Intimate Apparel was written more than a dozen years before the recent wave of shocking plays inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, a couple of which were produced in Dallas last season. The startling form-busting of What to Send Up When It Goes Down or verbal barrage of Pass Over, it’s not.

An early work of Lynn Nottage, who went on to win two Pulitzers and a MacArthur genius grant, the story of a Black seamstress searching for love in 1905 New York displays a gentle touch with the race, class and gender issues of its time, issues that still linger today.

The current production by MainStage Irving-Las Colinas of the 2003 play is well made, with a wonderfully affecting performance by Stormi Demerson as the central character, Esther Mills. Demerson, who previously portrayed Esther 15 years ago at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, makes you both feel for and respect her.

At the matinee performance in Irving Arts Center’s Dupree Theater last Sunday, the chemistry was most apparent in scenes between Esther and Mr. Marks (Blair Mitchell), the Orthodox Jew who sells her the fabric she uses to sew beautiful undergarments for her rich clients.

Their shared love of fine materials is so palpable, you can imagine steam rising when they stand close together in the tight space of his shop, designed by Ellen Doyle Mizener. Nottage saves some of her best dialogue for their flirty if chaste encounters.

Stormi Demerson as Esther Mills at the sewing machine she uses to make undergarments for... — Stormi Demerson as Esther Mills at the sewing machine she uses to make undergarments for rich clients in MainStage Irving-Las Colinas' production of Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel."(Kris Ikejiri)

Awaiting a marriage arranged by his family, Marks is forbidden by his faith to even touch a woman who’s not a close relative or his wife. A 35-year-old transplant from North Carolina who’s been living half of her life in the same boarding house, Esther is a virgin waiting for a husband. All these years, she has been saving money (sewn into a quilt on her bed) to open a beauty salon.

The plot is triggered when a West Indian laborer on the Panama Canal (a charming Brentom Jackson) begins writing her letters. He’s learned about Esther from a mutual acquaintance at her church back home. You can sense the trouble ahead, so when it arrives the story gets bogged down in a predictable routine.

The plot may seem dated. But to Nottage’s credit, her handling of it is not.

Brentom Jackson as suitor George Armstrong and Stormi Demerson as Esther Mills in MainStage... — Brentom Jackson as suitor George Armstrong and Stormi Demerson as Esther Mills in MainStage Irving-Las Colinas' production of Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel."(Kris Ikejiri)

As its title suggests, the play is about the tension between intimacy and societal rules governing relationships between men and women, Blacks and whites. The intimate nature of touch returns as an idea over and over to remind us of this tension.

Lines are crossed by two of the three women in Esther’s life: white client Mrs. Van Buren (the always compelling Lindsay Hayward) and prostitute-friend Mayme (a sympathetic Kayland Jordan). Yolanda Davis rounds out the cast as the wise and understanding Mrs. Dickson, Esther’s landlady.

Dennis Raveneau directs in a deliberate, realistic style, creating a smooth canvas for the action. But the production could use a few more moments that pop.